About Dan Blank

My name is Dan Blank, and I help writers and creative professionals share their stories and connect with their audience. I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of people via online courses, consulting, and workshops. I have worked with amazing organizations such as Random House, Hachette Book Group, Sesame Workshop, Workman Publishing, J. Walter Thompson, Abrams Books, Writers House, The Kenyon Review, Writer’s Digest, Library Journal, and many others.

I have spoken at many of the top publishing conferences, engaging with executives from the largest publishing houses, to writers just trying to get their foot in the door. Some of the events I have spoken at include:

Here is some background on my personal experience in the arts and creative work…

I have been an artist, a poet, a musician, a paper sculptor, a writer, a publisher, a photographer, a teacher, a radio DJ, a cartoonist, a designer and an entrepreneur.

As a kid, I went to art school. I was the “art kid” early on, which came with a certain sense of pride, even when my brother made me illustrate all of his book report cover pages. Each week, I ventured into the basement of Mrs. Flanagan, my local art school instructor, whose walls were covered with murals and floors covered with splotches of paint. It’s hard to describe how creative that cold dark basement felt as a kid.

In High School, I lucked into the fact that my local HS also had a separate wing in the building where kids studied performing arts: dance, theater, video, etc. I wasn’t a part of that program, but most of my friends were. I also had friends such as Pixie and Jay Alders, who are now professional photographers and artists, to while away the after-school hours with.

I got into poetry and photography, and grew into the “alternative” kid with the funny haircut who spent as much time as possible chatting with my creative writing teacher and English teacher. I took hundreds of black and white photographs, and made a poetry book out of sheet metal. Oh, and I listened to a lot of The Smiths, New Order, and The Cure. It was the 80’s, after all.

In college, I spent more time publishing a music zine than I did doing homework. I was simply more motivated to be the first person to publish this monthly magazine, than to be the 1,000th kid to fill out the same xerox’d set of questions about Beowulf. But the experience of running a zine made me a publisher from start to finish. The zine focused on Britpop music, and I developed contacts at all the major record labels. I got to interview most of my favorite artists, got boatloads of free CDs and concert tickets, and got deeply in debt by paying for printed copies of the zine in an age before blogs. When you earn $3.50 an hour, it takes YEARS to pay off printing costs of $500+ per issue. Years. That zine put me thousands of dollars in debt, and taught me a lot of lessons about the business of being a creative professional. During this time I was also a college radio DJ, a cartoonist for our campus newspaper, and interned at Rutgers University Press. Oh, and I graduated from Rutgers University’s School of Communication, Information and Library Science. Can’t forget that.

Just after college, I was the manager of a local independent bookstore and cafe, where I helped schedule weekly musical acts, poetry readings, art exhibits, and other activities. I began getting really into paper craft, book arts, and paper sculpture, which resulted in me spending about 3 years developing a series of pop up books.

It was a super creative time filled with odd creative projects such as short films, sculpture, writing, and illustration. All long locked away in storage boxes. Again: this was before the age of blogs or Instagram or YouTube. I also played in a band that never played a single show, even though I have hundreds of hours of recordings locked away somewhere.

To say that I have been fortunate to know and work with so many incredible creative people is an understatement.

Beyond all of this, I have also had the pleasure of working with some of tomorrow’s great writers and creative professionals, the kids up at PS 123 in Harlem. I began a partnership with them back in 2003, and since that time have helped plan dozens of events with the students, always focused on publishing, literacy and communication. PS 123 is an amazing community, and I feel truly honored to be a tiny part of their lives:

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Hello! My name is Dan Blank, and I help writers share their stories, and connect with readers. I've worked with hundreds of authors, and some of the most amazing organizations that support writers. Think I can help you in your journey? Learn more about me here.